Harbaughs to make history at Super Bowl XLVII

By By Matt Zenitz and Landmark New Service

Feb 01, 2013 | 11:00 AM

In this combination of photos, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, right, and San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh speak during their team's media day for the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, in New Orleans. The brothers will be the first to face off as dueling head coaches in the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) (Charlie Riedel, Capital Gazette)

NEW ORLEANS - They're all stories that had been told before - Jim and John Harbaugh's countless sports-related competitions growing up in Ann Arbor, Mich., the line of athletic tape that John once striped across the room the two shared for 16 years to separate each brother's side of the room, and the games of "basketball" in the family basement with the hoop made out of a coat hanger and the tennis ball they used as the ball.

But all of the same questions that were asked of Jim and John Harbaugh when their two teams readied to meet last Thanksgiving have been asked all over again as the two Harbaughs now prepare their teams to face each other Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII.

The questions actually reached a point even prior to the Baltimore Ravens' arrival in New Orleans that John joked at one point, "We aren't that interesting. There's nothing more to learn."

But both brothers do understand the interest.

After all, this is the NFL's biggest stage. And just a year after the two became the first set of brothers to coach against each other in an NFL game, the Harbaugh brothers will now be the first brothers to coach opposing teams in the championship game of a major American professional sport.

"We do get it," John said. "It's really cool, and it's really exciting and all of that."

John's the older brother, born exactly 15 months prior to Jim.

He's the more charismatic of the two. He's engaging as a speaker, is typically cordial, and he has a sense of humor that he routinely flashes during his weekly meetings with the media - even as recently as Monday when he joked with Newsday's Bob Glauber regarding Glauber's resemblance to John's brother in-law, Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean.

Jim's the fiery and brash former professional athlete that doesn't hide his dissatisfaction if he doesn't like a reporter's question and isn't at all shy about openly showing his frustration if he doesn't like a call from a referee.

The two brothers are dissimilar to a certain degree, but similar in the sense that both, as coaches, are molded after their father, Jack, a long-time college coach and a former National Championship winning head coach at Western Kentucky.

Both brothers talk fondly about Jack's passion, his attention to detail and the foundation that was laid for both watching University of Michigan practices and games when their father was an assistant under legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler from 1973 to 1979.

And, like their father, both Jim and John pride themselves on being great motivators - routinely using the same motivational slogans they can remember their father using on them as children - ones like "Grab your lunches, men, and let's attack this day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind! And by the way, don't take any wooden nickles today."

It's a slogan Jim repeated as recently as his podium session with the media Wednesday afternoon.

Asked last week if he models his coaching style after his father, John responded, "Of course you do, right? You see him every day of your life ... and he's the greatest coach we've ever been around."

John was a college defensive back at Miami (Ohio.), but he didn't have nearly the success as a player that his younger brother did.

Jim was a standout quarterback at Michigan - a three-year starter under center for the Wolverines - before being selected by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 1987 NFL draft. He spent 15 seasons in the NFL with six different teams, including the Ravens in 1998.

John, meanwhile, got into coaching immediately after graduating from Miami in 1984, joining his father's staff at Western Michigan as a graduate assistant for the 1984 season. John spent three years at Western Michigan before spending time as an assistant coach at four other schools prior to being hired as the Philadelphia Eagles' special teams coordinator in 1998.

He spent 10 seasons with the Eagles - nine as their special teams coordinator and one as their defensive backs coach - before being hired by the Ravens in 2008.

He inherited a Baltimore team that had gone just 5-11 the year before, but he's led the Ravens to playoff appearances in each of his five seasons as head coach and now has the team just one win away from the second Super Bowl title in franchise history.

"He's just a really tough guy," Baltimore cornerback Cary Williams said of John. "He's a guy that I guess could be looked at as the underdog. He has a younger brother that had a tremendous career in the NFL as a player, and unfortunately he wasn't able to do that, so he went into coaching, and he's just an unbelievable coach, an unbelievable mentor to a lot of guys and just an uplifting spirit in the locker room."

"He played in this league, he's not too far removed from that and he has an open door policy with his players," San Francisco safety Donte Whitner said. "He can relate us, and he's just a really good football coach."

And similar to the way he turned around the programs at Stanford and the University of San Diego during his short time at each, Jim's transformed a 49ers team that was just 6-10 in 2010 - the year prior to his arrival - into a team that's 26-7-1 (including the playoffs) under Jim the last two seasons. San Francisco advanced to the NFC championship game last season before falling in overtime to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants. A year later, Jim has the tradition-rich 49ers in their first Super Bowl since 1994 - a game that will pit his San Francisco team against John's Baltimore team with the biggest prize in pro football on the line.

Said Jack Harbaugh: "This is just a fantastic, fantastic experience, and really no one has it better than us."